Jet lag and elephant ankles

Hello from sunny Sydney! We finally made it. The flight was not too painful, although after 3 films, 5 aeroplane meals and 3 times through all the security checks we were both very ready for it to end.

The weather here in Sydney is glorius, probably mid 20s, which is complete contrast to the first Olympic city we visited this weekend. Beijing was covered in snow which was apparently completely unexpected and resulted in us sitting on the runway for over an hour after landing before they could park up and let us off to catch our connection. I had a few nervous moments about missing our connection but Chris had a good solution - sleep through it! It did mean we didn’t have to hang about so long before our next flight, although it was long enough to see some ‘live’ delicatessen type products for sale. It was a shame we hadn’t bought any yen. Mmmm.

On arriving into Sydney, we somehow got a free upgrade on our hire car - to a 5 door from our 3 which turned out to be quite lucky considering only one of our suitcases would fit in the boot. Not so lucky that it was an automatic, and I made a schoolgirl error in letting Chris drive. I know we are in Australia, but kangarooing down the road for the first 400m was not needed or appreciated. I performed my navigator role exceptionally well I thought, my directions were spot on and we obviously didn’t need the huge signs looming over the motorway to the Olympic park.

Our hotel is right on the Olympic park and you can see the athletics stadium across the road. Almost as important, the shower was superb. Possibly the best ever. I don’t know if I have ever been in more need of a good wash! It wasn’t until then that I realised my lower legs had blown up to the size of actual tree trunks. I seriously have never had such fat calves and my ankles are the size of footballs! They’ve started to recede slightly, not sure yet how much two hours sleeping with my feet in the air will have helped but we’ll see.

We are both feeling a bit strange at the moment. A bit worried I suppose now we are finally here. Wondering if we did the right thing. Wondering if a three or four week holiday would have been better. But I am sure it will pass once we have caught up a bit on sleep and started our exploring. It is quite funny that a day or so ago we were so excited about arriving, and then when we actually did, all we wanted to do was find the hotel and have a shower and a sleep.

We may check out the local eating and drinking places later on…but before that I’ll probably try and haul my monster calves on a bit of a jog. It’ll be my first run in Australia and actually my first outside of Europe. I wonder if running upside down will feel any different….